Well, you can call me Billy-biased today. We all have those games/series, the one that is our first memory of gaming. For some, it is Mario, others Sonic. Younger gamers remember Spyro, and some of you started with the likes of Tak and the Power of Juju. Yes, I will judge you for that one! If you are of a specific vintage, you’ll remember a little blue-ish green alien that farted, said “Hello” and “Follow me,” saved several of his mates, chanted, and laughed when he killed aliens with guns. The type of platformer that you could use to compare factory work to corporate slavery.

The Oddworld games started in 1997 with Abe’s Oddysee, and I am more than happy to point out some of my earlier memories of gaming include telling friends to follow me. That was usually promptly followed by feeling angry and a little sad about killing them… several times. Oddworld: Soulstorm is a remake/re-imagining of the sequel to Oddysee, which got its own remake in 2014’s New N’ Tasty, Abe’s Exoddus.

The new and improved version of Exoddus is one I’m finding myself wrestling with quite a lot over the last few days. Most notably i’ve struggled with how my experience was differing from the experience I was seeing from others on such platforms as PC. This is where I have to point out, that in my experience of Soulstorm I’ve found several (hundred) technical issues. They are nothing major, but could alter your perception of the game overall. Examples include frames dropping on the more complex scenes, several visual issues including clipping in gameplay, and odd loading and unloading of enemies or support characters.

The thing is, in the review guides that we’re often given with these review codes, we’re provided notes on things like known bugs to be called out: There are two known bugs in particular that folks have experienced. An infinite falling bug and a bug where you are kicked back to PS4/PS4 Pro screen, both of which are meant to be patched out by now. I’ve not encountered either of those. In the first level, once you leave the prologue area, I’d get to the end of one small section for cutscenes to feature characters expositing lengthy story segments. I’ll get to that in a minute, but in several instances after the first interaction, I’d have Abe and Sligs in the same scene clipping and interacting with each other.

Your first interaction is telling you to get to X point where a Mudduckin friend is standing as a marker. The second time I saw that same friend in the second cutscene, he was clipping through other characters, doing the same animation while being both in the cutscene prior and in the background. As I’ve said, I’ve not seen actual friends with (for instance) the PC port having the same issue. I also can’t speak for the PS4 Pro or PS5 users as I’ve yet to see anything from them. In the end, it might leave you with a bit of an exasperated mood, wondering “should I just stop?”

This is the thing, I love the Oddworld series, and I don’t want to say that should make you feel drained at simply enjoying Soulstorm. At its core, there is still that puzzle-platforming fun that the series is known for. Most notably playing at 3 AM in my office with my cat on my lap, I start chanting along with Abe, blow the brains out of a Slig, and cackle like a mental patient seeing a cartoon cat get hit by a broom handle. The core fun of the series is retained, with lots and lots of swearing at those dang mines that can get right in the bin where they belong.

However, with the game being a somewhat re-imagining of the second game in the series, there are a few notable changes. The wonderful save system that would allow you to quickly load and quick save from New ‘N’ Tasty, is gone. Though it was never something that was part of Oddysee, quick saving was part of Exoddus; So much so that reviewers praised the ability to do so back in 1998, as some did in 2014 with New ‘N’ Tasty. It is still gone in favor of the checkpoint system that makes you swear profusely, and made little me bite my arms off swearing at the age of 4.

What else has been chucked out? Farting. You what? Farting, the ability to fart from the first (including its remake) and second game, is now gone. The little blue-ish green alien we all loved for farting and saving his friends is no longer farting. What is the bloody point in that! You might as well fling out Abe at that point and replace him with a little annoying sod call Munch and his Oddysee.

For all the little gripes I’m throwing at the game, I’m doing it because I do love it. It is stunning. Much like New ‘N’ Tasty, the static single frames that were broken up with load-time doors and fade-ins and outs are gone. Now it favors flowing and interweaving levels, making the pacing a lot faster and the game feels overall like a leap ahead of the late 90s games. Even Abe in his spry old age has had a hip replacement! Now he can do double-jumps and he feels a lot more invigorated.

What (more or less) kills that fun and fast pacing for me tends to be my final two gripes that shouldn’t come as a shock to many. Cutscenes feel like they are taking a little too long, either trying too hard to be funny or reiterating the same goal so those in the back can hear it. I understand why, but all the same, the sword of Damocles that hangs over the remake/re-imagining is the enjoyment already found in the originals. Adding the story with bloated cutscenes isn’t improving on that experience.

This brings me to the plight we all face in modern games: Crafting. I don’t understand it. I don’t think there is a game where crafting being added has improved the experience, I’m sick of doing it. Sure, much like that of Dying Light or something a bit less focused on the crafting, it is simply the contextual holding of a button and a wait time, but I still don’t love it. I don’t see what it is adding other than more scavenging for things like batteries. It is a video game about an alien trying to save his mates, I don’t see what adding inventory limitation and crafting is doing other than fitting in with everyone else.

For all my little nitpicks, I don’t think that should/would dissuade anyone who’s a fan of the originals. You’ve probably bought several copies anyway. If you are a possible new player, I’m not casting what your perspective would be. With that said I think I know the comparison that draws the best measurement. Not every game is Dark Souls, and I wouldn’t say that of an Oddworld game, but the similarities in the reaction do make them at least slightly comparable. Both set points where you’ll respawn, and both make you want to chew your own hands off after bosses or those damn mines.

A PS4 copy of Oddworld: Soulstorm was provided by Oddworld Inhabitants for the purposes of this review.

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Oddworld: Soulstorm

$49.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• A beautiful update to the classic.
• Solid platforming.
• Fun and quick pacing.
• Lots of swearing at those mines!
• The chanting.

Cons

• Why do we need crafting everywhere?
• Bloated cutscenes.
• A lack of the quick save system of the original.